This Mom Gave Birth to Twins in the Middle of a Blizzard and You Have to See the Powerful Photos

Maria Zerkowski’s birth story is like something out of a movie: Not only did the Atlanta resident give birth to twins in the middle of a blizzard, she was also on FaceTime with her sick father in Brazil (where Maria and her husband, Adriano, are from). Getting to meet her daughters in a poignant, joyful moment resulted in what Maria says was the first time in months she's seen her father, who was dying from liver and intestinal cancer, smile.

But her unconventional birth story didn’t faze Maria and Adriano. For them, it was par for the course.

“We are not a conventional couple,” Maria told What to Expect. “We always want to play, laugh and bring joy in our daily lives, and since we are very creative people, we always try to do something different and remarkable.”

One of the couple's favorite things to do is collect masks and incorporate them into their daily lives, so she knew that when it came time to take maternity photos she wanted to put a personal stamp on them somehow. They also knew that photographer Christina Hodgen, whom the couple met through a birth class at the Birth Boot Camp, would be just the person to help them document their life-changing journey.

“We knew she would be excited and happy to embrace our ideas and to enhance our most crazy pictures wishes,” Maria said.

The feeling was mutual, according to Christina. “They really wanted to dress in costume, and I loved that,” she said.

That’s how Adriano and Maria ended up running around Atlanta wearing a unicorn costume and a clown costume (among others, as you can see from the photos!) and generally just having a blast. “We wanted to show our ‘twinsters’ what kind of parents we wanted to be for them…Our feeling was that we were portraying our true [selves], that we were authentic and that we were having a lot of fun.”

Maria and Adriano had also hired Christina to shoot the birth, but that proved a little tougher. Maria and Adriano had taken a hospital birth bootcamp course through the Happiest Doulas, and against the recommendations of their friends and family, they opted to try for a vaginal birth. (Most births in Brazil take place via C-section.)

“We knew things going in were going to be tough,” Christina said. “I can’t even imagine trying to give birth to twins while knowing my father was dying in Brazil.”

Initially, Maria and Adriano were sure they had made the right choice. On April 7, 2017, Maria arrived at the hospital, 38 weeks, five days (which is considered full term when you’re carrying twins), pregnant, with the intention of inducing labor. Shortly after being given Pitocin, Maria’s blood pressure skyrocketed — she had developed preeclampsia, which can be life-threatening. Right away, she says, she had to start taking magnesium to control her blood pressure and couldn’t move around anymore. When Maria’s contractions worsened, she asked for an epidural, which took care of the pain but also left her vomiting. “I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything, and I was literally vomiting up nothing,” she said.

Simultaneously, it had started to snow outside — hard. “I think they thought it was a good omen, seeing this fluffy snow falling around them, putting everyone in a cozy kind of Christmas mood,” Christina says, “But it did impact Maria’s birth, because some of the nursing staff had trouble getting into the hospital. At one point, her doctor had left to eat dinner, and getting back to the hospital was really hard.”

Christina got to the hospital in the middle of the night, at which point Maria had been pushing for hours. Finally, after having another scare when her blood pressure dropped dramatically, Maria and her doctors decided a C-section would be the best option for her. This was a whopping 32 hours after they had started labor, and, “I was relieved, because I didn’t think I could stand more hours in labor," Maria said.

Maria was almost to the finish line: After waiting an additional three hours — there were two emergency C-sections scheduled ahead of hers — she underwent a C-section and met her twin girls, Miki and Sunny, who arrived in perfect health.

It was an emotional moment not just for Maria and Adriano but for Maria’s father as well, who was able to meet his granddaughters via FaceTime. “The last real joy of my father’s life was my pregnancy,” Maria said. “Despite a very aggressive cancer and suffering complications, including surgery for a hernia, pneumonia, two heart attacks and an embolism, he stayed alive to meet them.”

She continued: “He was so emotional; he kept saying, ‘How lovely they are, how lovely.’”

Christina captured each moment beautifully. “It’s just amazing to watch a woman become a mother,” she says. “It never gets old; I cry every single time. To watch her talk about her father, and then she’s bringing in these two babies.”

Maria, Adriano, and their adorable twinsters (along with the couple’s two dogs, Victoria and Popcorn) are all doing well. Although Maria’s father passed away in January, she says she’s grateful that he had the chance to meet Miki and Sunny. “We FaceTimed every day, and my mother said that was the only time he smiled,” she said. “Without a doubt, the twinsters made him live longer.”